All posts tagged ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’

I lived a lonely geeky existence once upon a time. When I heard Lord of the Rings was coming to the theaters, I wanted to go, but had no one to go with. A friend of my sister-in-law said he would go with me, but ONLY if I read all three Lord of the Rings books ahead of time. I love fantasy books. I had been meaning to read them anyway. I enjoyed The Hobbit as a kid, even did a report on it in high school. I was looking forward to it. No problem.

Ugh. It took me an entire summer, and half a dozen books as “breaks” to get through the trilogy. Tolkien’s epic prose was foreign to my modern fantasy reader’s ears. How long before I realized Sauramon and Sauron were different characters? (That explained a lot…) And speaking of names, holy crap! So many look almost exactly alike. Where was the storyteller’s voice from The Hobbit? I felt like I was slogging through a textbook of mythology.

I did get through it; the final book grabbed my attention as characters and plot points came together. Seeing the movie, fresh from the books made me have quite a number of opinions. But the biggest one was this: THANK YOU PETER JACKSON! I was so much more entertained watching the movies than reading the books. And stories are foremost about entertainment.

Whoa, there! Back up a minute before you pounce on me. Before anyone says anything about stories being about learning and transmitting cultural ideas, think back on most of your classroom experience. If the teacher didn’t entertain you in some way, you didn’t learn anything. All storytellers, no matter what the form, MUST entertain or every bit of learning is for naught. As a storyteller myself I am desperate to share the worlds in my head, but if I can’t entertain while I’m doing it, no one will listen. Tolkien failed as an entertainer for me, regardless of the fact that his world and characters were so rich. Jackson had me enthralled, my imagination sparked after the house lights came on, and I even obsessed about the character of Frodo (or maybe it was just Elijah Wood…)

The key there is what format engaged me. Fairy tales, books and comics have all been redone as movies over the years with varying success for different people. Here are two more movies that I found better than the book:

Jeff Kinney, author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid children’s book series, bills himself as a “G-rated guy” from Plainville. However, I call him (along with Captain Underpants creator Dav Pilkey) the author who finally convinced my reluctant reader that books could be fun–and I’m not the only one making that claim. At a recent Manhattan interview that I participated in, Kinney took questions and comments from a number of bloggers who echoed my sentiments.

“I am an English Language Arts teacher in New York City and I have children that have been mainstreamed and have IEPs, that are struggling readers. There are so many aspects of your books that are appealing to children that are at risk and struggling readers. You have the visual aids which make them feel successful when they read your books,” one invited blogger crowed.

“You may have saved my son’s whole educational career,” a second blogger concurred.

One of the keys to the Wimpy Kid series’ success is its liberal use of cartoons throughout to depict the imminently-relatable misadventures of middle school everyman Greg Hefley and his charming-though-naive best friend Rowley. These images do more than simply break up what might otherwise be perceived by young chapter-book readers as a daunting page of text, they make kids laugh–and in my experience, if you have kids laughing, you’re well on your way to winning the put down the video game controller and do some reading battle.